The latest community mental health survey from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that 4 in 10 people are waiting too long for mental health care.
The annual survey of more than 14,000 people who accessed community mental health services from 1st April to 31st May 2024 “lays bare the devastating reality,” that high demand, long wait times and a lack of support means that people are still not getting the mental health care they really need.
It follows a recent CQC report that found that many people can become caught in a “damaging cycle” of re-admittance to in-patient mental health services due to a lack of suitable care in the community.
The community mental health survey found that a third of people (33%) waited 3 months or more for their first mental health appointment, with 40% saying they were not offered any support while they waited.
Nearly half (42%) said their mental health deteriorated while they waited for care.
This number increased the longer people waited for mental health care, with more than 7 in 10 people (71%) who waited over 6 months for treatment reporting getting more unwell as they waited.
Widespread issues found in community mental health care
Sadly, around 10% of people accessing mental health care also said they were not treated with dignity and respect.
People who accessed care via the phone tended to report more negative experiences, saying they struggled to get appropriate support and had limited choice about how their care would be delivered.
More than three quarters of respondents (77%) also said they weren’t signposted to help or advice with the cost of living, even though this is now a significant driver of mental health problems in the UK.
People also reported a lack of planning and involvement in their mental health care.
Over a third of people (38%) said they did not have a care plan in place and more than 4 in 10 (43%) had not had a review meeting to discuss their care. Meanwhile, more than a third (36%) said they had no choice in how their care was delivered while around 1 in 4 people (23%) were not supported to make decisions about their care. Only just over a quarter (28%) felt in control of their mental health care.
Mental health care services continue to face significant workforce challenges, with the vacancy rate across the mental health sector standing at 9.9%, and 10,000 mental health nursing posts remaining empty.
Common issues identified by the CQC’s community mental health survey included:
- People struggling to access mental health care
- People not feeling involved in their mental health care
- People not receiving support when they needed it
Differences in mental health care for older and young people
Older people tended to fare better than younger people, with individuals accessing Older People’s Mental Health Services (OPMHS) generally reporting more positive experiences. Nearly three quarters of those aged 65 or older (73%) accessing mental health care said they always felt listened to by NHS staff. But the CQC survey did also find that nearly half (48%) were not asked if they needed support to access care.
When it came to young people accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), the care watchdog found that the challenges in accessing mental health care were “particularly stark.”
A third (33%) of young people said they didn’t know who to contact in a crisis. Even more concerning, more than a third (36%) who did access crisis care said they were not given the help they needed. The same amount said no support was provided to their family or carers during the crisis. Only just over a quarter (26%) said they received help for their physical needs when accessing care through CAMHS.
Generally, though, young people did report feeling involved, at least to some extent, in their mental health care and planning (87%).
Other respondents reporting worse than average experiences across multiple areas of mental health care included people with disabilities and autistic people. This included in relation to being treated with care and compassion, feeling listened to, being given the help they needed from services, and being supported to make decisions about their mental health care and treatment.
While the report raised several key concerns, the CQC noted there were minor improvements in people receiving support to access mental health care.
Almost half of survey respondents (44%) said they were asked if they required support to access treatment, which is a 3% increase from 2023. Of those that did need support, almost a third (32%) felt the support they were given completely met their needs. This also represents a 3% increase from the previous year.
The ‘devastating reality’ of mental health care
Jenny Wilkes, Interim Director of Mental Health at the CQC, said:
“This report lays bare the devastating reality that people are still not getting the mental health support they need, when they need it.
“This is particularly stark when looking at young people – we know that early intervention is critical in making sure people get the support they need and too often this is not happening.
“Too many people are waiting too long for the care they need – and experiencing a deterioration in their mental health while they wait. This, coupled with pressures such as high workforce vacancies, is causing a bottleneck of supply and demand – and people’s health and often their ability to contribute to society is suffering as a result.”
Workforce issues and underfunding need to be addressed urgently in order to give the improvements that people with mental health issues need and deserve.”
Train to provide mental health support
First Response Training (FRT) is a leading national training provider delivering courses in subjects such as health and safety, first aid, fire safety, manual handling, food safety, mental health, health and social care and more.
An accredited Mindful Employer themselves, FRT’s specialist mental health training courses include Understanding Mental Health, Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace, Managing Stress, Anxiety and Phobias Awareness, Self-Harm Awareness and Suicide Awareness.
They can also provide qualified, approved trainers to deliver accredited Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training courses, including the Adult, Youth and Lite versions.
A trainer from FRT says:
“Every person struggling with a mental health disorder deserves to receive appropriate and timely treatment and support, whether in the community or in hospital. People should be involved in their care plan, which must be tailored specifically to them, and they should be treated with dignity, compassion and respect at all times.
“It is especially sad to see that people with disabilities and autistic people are still facing a lack of dignified, compassionate care
and that they are still often being excluded from decisions about their care and not listened to.
“The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism was developed specifically to ensure that individuals with learning disabilities and autistic people are understood, supported, valued and listened to by health and care services, so that no other individual has to endure what Oliver McGowan and his family went through.
“We think it is key that everyone involved in community mental health care undertakes training to improve their understanding of learning disabilities and autism so that they can provide better, more person centred and responsive care and support.”
FRT can also provide mental health training and education to people from all backgrounds and workplace sectors. Their trainer adds:
“Given current long waiting times and a lack of resources, it’s really important that we all have a general understanding of mental health problems and an awareness of common conditions such as anxiety and depression, and that we are familiar with effective support strategies for helping others and managing our own mental wellbeing.
“Our mental health training provides learners with an understanding of mental health disorders, how they can be managed and treated, how to promote good mental health and mental resilience in ourselves and how to offer support to someone dealing with poor mental health.”
Helpful resources
A brief summary of our mental health training can now be downloaded as an infographic.
We also have a number of free infographics available to download which provide simple tips for helping to manage your mental health and wellbeing. These include:
- Managing Stress at Work
- Manage Your Stress at Work
- Manage Your Stress
- Support Your Mental Health
- Connect With Nature
- Work Well From Home
- Anxiety Factsheet
- Manage Your Anxiety
- Managing Panic Attack
You can also download our free Guide to Mental Health Training from our website.
For more information on the training that FRT can provide, please call them today on freephone 0800 310 2300 or send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com.